Abstracts
1998 Digestive Disease Week

#1032

ANTITHROMBIN III REDUCES LEUKOCYTE-ENDOTHELIAL INTER-ACTION AFTER WARM HEPATIC ISCHEMIA IN RATS. Sasa-Marcel Maksan, Martha Maria Gebhard_, Marc-Oliver Maksan*, Christian Herfarth, Ernst Klar. Departments of Surgery and Experimental Surgery_, University of Heidelberg, Department of Neurosurgery*, University of Bonn, Germany.

Objective: Antithrombin III (AT III) has been demonstrated to improve mucosal blood flow after reperfusion of the small intestine. It was the aim of this study to analyze hepatic microcirculation and leukocyte-endothelial interaction after warm liver ischemia and reperfusion.

Material and methods: Warm hepatic ischemia was induced in male Wistar rats (n=12, 250-280 g) by occluding blood vessels and bile duct of the left middle lobe. The AT III group (n=6) was treated with 250 IU AT III/kg body weight 30 min prior to ischemia. Ischemia was performed for 60 min. 30 min after reperfusion hepatic microcirculation was analyzed by intravital fluorescence microscopy with respect to sinusoidal perfusion and leukocyte adherence. Significance analysis was done by Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney-U-test.

Results: There was a significant increase in hepatic microcirculation in the AT III group. The leukocyte-endothelial interaction was markedly reduced by AT III (p<0,05).

Conclusion: The results of the current study demonstrated that pretreatment with AT III significantly improves microcirculation after warm liver ischemia and reperfusion. The reduction of leukocyte-endothelial interaction represents the main mechanism.

Copyright 1996 - 1998, SSAT, Inc. Revised 29 June 1998.